Monday, February 13, 2012

We are the daughters of Eino K. Latvala, and we wanted to ask you to help us in making his 90th birthday this year (March 10, 2012) a special one. (Please note this is TOP SECRET, at least until March 10th!)

The one thing that we know our father values the most is the wonderful relationships he has had the good fortune to have through his 90 years. In addition to family, those relationships have developed through his work, church, professional associations, academic pursuits, military service and personal friendships. We are sure he would agree (if we weren’t keeping this a top secret mission at this point), that each person copied on this email, in some way, has had (or continues to have) a positive impact on his life, whether directly or merely by example. (And although his modesty would keep him from saying so, we imagine that often he has often had a similar effect on many of you.)

So we sincerely wanted to ask you if you might take a minute or two to describe (in as much or little detail as you would like) something about your relationship with our father and what that has meant to you. It can be a short anecdote or maybe a description of your impact on his life or his impact on yours. It can be serious or funny. It can be something from times past or a recent event. Maybe you have a picture that would provide a precious memory. If you are more comfortable just sending birthday wishes (back to this email at latvalak@juno.com), that would be appreciated as well. We are going to collect all of the responses and put them into a book of letters & emails for his birthday.

If you are receiving this email and see someone that should be on the list but isn't, please let us know. (And if you have their email or snail mail address, that would be greatly appreciated as well!) We will need responses back no later than March 1 to give us time to put the book together. If we have emailed you in error, we apologize. In some cases, we are working from group listings and are not always sure if there is a connection.

We want to thank you for taking the time to read this email. And if you send a response back to this email address or to the address noted below, we want to thank you in advance for your time and effort. We know your words will mean so much to our father. Thank you SO much for helping us make his 90th birthday a special day!

Regards,

Katherine Latvala Bjorholm & Marguerite Latvala Monahan

P.S.

Remember:

(1) This is TOP SECRET. We are hoping to surprise him for his birthday! Please do not send your response to our father. Send it to latvalak@juno.com. (Or if you prefer by snail-mail to Katherine Latvala, PO Box 70452, Knoxville, TN 37938).

This is a group of folks that you might know. This was taken back in 1986. Some were a part of AEF at one time or another. Some of the group found themselves in in the Technology Group located in the Mark I building about this time or across the street in the "Cow Barn." Now a slightly leveled patch of land.